Anchor Struck

As Donald Trump rose to tabloid fame in the 80’s, I quickly decided that he was a petty, preening buffoon.  Nothing since then, especially last night’s election, has changed my mind.  The gap between teleprompter Trump and tweeting Trump is already well-established.  I have no reason to believe that he can sustain any posture resembling dignity.

I ask you to give him a chance to prove otherwise.  This is not done as a conciliatory gesture, just an acceptance that it’s in everyone’s best interest.  When he takes office, he has to put up or shut up.  He’ll be making choices that will have profound consequences nationally and globally.  I assume he’ll continue to blame others for his failures, but the more power he has, the weaker an argument that becomes.

Congratulations to all of us for surviving what I hope will remain the most contentious campaign in U.S. history.  The knot I’ve had in my stomach and my soul for the past four months is gone, if not resolved.  It tightened more every time the potency of an event like the Billy Bush party bus tape quickly faded.  Trump seemed disaster-proof.  I feared that his smug surrogates were right about the depth of anger in the nation.  As a fan of factual accuracy, I extend kudos to them.  Begrudgingly.

A chapter of history ended last night, yet daybreak showed up on time today.  We still have our Visa bill to pay and chickens to feed.  And there’s a discernible upside: the Democrats are now free to repair and rebuild their brand.  The Clintons become elder statespersons and the next generation can blossom and nurture its favourable demographics.  The Dems don’t have any recognizable names like Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan or Ewww…Ted Cruz, but they have a lot of talent.  Watch for the rise of Kirsten Gillibrand, Tammy Duckworth, Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra.  And wouldn’t Michelle Obama make a great “outsider”, if that’s the future of U.S. politics?

The Screaming Cantaloupe cannot possibly do all the things he has promised or threatened, so he can’t possibly do all the damage that we fear.  And, as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would remind us: “Rejoice!  Rejoice!  We have no choice, but to carry on.”